Scans_Daily

So, not to go off about one of my pet obsessions, but here's a couple of misconceptions right off the bat:

1) Evolution is not "random" any more than it is "guided". Stopped Watch, Twice A Day, etc.: Prof. Dawkins has pointed out that many evolutionary advantages (such as shells or fins) do not "randomly" come out ahead, but are specifically selected by the process of survival. In this way, evolutionary theory can make (vague) guesses about the future; Darwin himself predicted the existence of a moth with an absurdly long proboscis 20 years before it was discovered, based on analysis of orchid specimens sent to him from Madagascar.

2) On the other hand, Natural Selection is far from the only means of evolution. Many changes happen due to random genetic drift (DNA can alter when subject to chemicals, radiation, the process of copying itself). It typically only happens in smaller populations or population bottlenecks, but sometimes luck is more to blame than "fitness" - e.g., if a population of mice on one side of an island has stripes and the other has spots, and the spotted mice are wiped out by a volcanic eruption that only happens on their side, the stripes have not given the surviving mice an advantage.

3) An obvious one: nothing remotely close to modern otters existed at the same time as Hadrosaurs. There were some other creatures kinda like them, though. This phenomenon is called "Convergent Evolution" - where similar features arise in unrelated creatures because those features are universally advantageous. You may notice that badgers and skunks both evolved black and white stripes while being genetically distant, or that sharks and fish have similar bodies despite sharks being an older family of creatures than most life on earth.

4) Among others, Stephen Jay Gould has pointed out that one of the primary misconceptions of evolution in public consciousness is the idea that it's like researching and developing a product, and/or that it has a "beginning" and "end" point. In fact, everything is adapting all the time with no pinnacle or goal in sight; in his book Full House, Gould likened it to getting a "Full House" in a game of poker - "Mother Nature" wants a winning variety of cards, not to just collect all the Kings.

5) The idea of "Hadrosaurs could have talked, we just don't know" is a fallacy created from the idea that Palaeontology is somehow guesswork. It's true that there are some things we may never know, but we are digging up new species and learning new facts all the time. Shows like Prehistoric Planet and professionals in the science and art communities (especially Paleoart Illustrators) are constantly refining and rediscovering - for instance, it was less than 5 years ago that new evidence showed Spinosaurus was a paddle-tailed aquatic creature, as opposed to a sail-backed long-faced T-Rex, as used to be the case.

But yeah. We know Dinosaurs did not speak English. In the same way we know the Earth is not flat. Some things are just obvious.